Posted on 09/29/2011 6:54:30 PM PDT by jazusamo
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WASHINGTON When the U.S. State Department announced this week that it finally is going to designate the Haqqani network as a foreign terrorist organization, it was a nonevent for most of our countrymen. That's because few Americans know how deadly the organization is. For that we can thank those at Foggy Bottom who are wedded to the naive hope of a near-term "diplomatic breakthrough" in Afghanistan. Couple that misguided belief with the Obama administration's self-deception that the radical Islamic jihad against the West ended with the demise of Osama bin Laden and it's understandable why the Haqqani network is virtually unknown. Here's the short form of why it's important. When Jalaluddin Haqqani founded the criminal enterprise now known as the Haqqani network, Soviet troops were running amok in Afghanistan. Adopted by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency as a reliable ally, Haqqani's fame as a Pashtun mujahed soon rivaled that of Tajik leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. Both the ISI and the CIA believed that Haqqani was "controllable." But he wasn't. After the Soviets withdrew in 1989 and Afghanistan descended into civil war, Massoud opposed the Taliban takeover. Haqqani, encouraged by the ISI, sided with Mullah Mohammad Omar's Taliban and became a key player in Islamabad's window on what was happening in Kabul. Though Massoud was murdered on the eve of the al-Qaida attack on 9/11, his Northern Alliance fighters were the backbone of the U.S.-led effort to unseat the Taliban. Haqqani, ever loyal to his handlers in the ISI's Department "S," soon became the most dangerous name in the Afghan insurgency and a "trusted brand" for Islamic mujahedeen from around the world, who want to kill Westerners. It's been that way for a decade. Apparently, our State Department just figured this out. On Sept. 22, Adm. Mike Mullen, the retiring chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. He described the Haqqani network now run by Jalaluddin Haqqani's son Siraj as "a veritable arm" of Pakistan's intelligence service. He also accused Haqqani "insurgents" of collaborating with the ISI in scores of high-profile attacks against U.S. and NATO personnel including the bloody June 28 attack on the InterContinental hotel in Kabul and the Sept. 13 assault on the U.S. Embassy there. Every official who could get to a microphone in Islamabad immediately denied the charge as did Pakistan's foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, at the United Nations. None of this could have been a surprise to our State Department. Since 2009, U.S. and NATO commanders in Afghanistan quietly have urged Pakistan's armed forces to move against the Haqqani headquarters, which is in a madrassa in mountainous Miran Shah. But for Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani Pakistan's military chief of staff such an operation in North Waziristan was a non-starter because it meant taking troops and equipment from the eastern frontier facing Pakistan's "real enemy" India. Nervous officials at our State Department voiced concerns that a Pakistani military move against the Haqqanis could precipitate a "destabilizing political upheaval in nuclear-armed Pakistan something none of us (wants)." The Obama administration's uncertainty and ambivalence about what to do about the Haqqani threat means this "family-led enterprise devoted to waging war" in the name of jihad carries on with near impunity. Other than missile strikes from unmanned aerial vehicles which carefully leaked stories have described as effective little has been done to thwart the flow of new jihadi recruits from Haqqani-run madrassas or to cut the cash coming into the family coffers that finances the killing of American troops. It's not just ISI financial support. Funding for Haqqani paramilitary operations and improvised explosive devices also comes from Saudi Arabia, interest on "family" bank accounts in the United Arab Emirates, extortion and ransom from kidnappings. A recent intelligence report describes how the Haqqanis "portray themselves as deeply religious while making a fortune from the sale and transportation of opium." The organization's success in "taxing" Afghan contractors paid with U.S. tax dollars is legendary. Another report identifies "legitimate businesses" being run overtly in Pakistan and Afghanistan by loyal clan members. Will the State Department's belated decision to designate the Haqqani network as a foreign terrorist organization change any of this? It could, if it's done the right way. It's not enough simply to freeze Haqqani assets in U.S. banks. It's unlikely after this week's announcement that the network has a savings account here anyway. A far better approach would be to bar any company or bank that does business with any Haqqani entity from doing any business in the U.S. Identifying, disrupting and discrediting foreign donors and sources of funding is crucial to strangling the organization's finances. Combining this effort with a carefully orchestrated political action campaign exposing Haqqani criminal activity particularly the opium trade could discredit the network's self-proclaimed "moral authority" to attract new recruits to the jihad. Can the O-Team pull this off? Let's hope so. It could make the difference in our keeping friends and doing in our enemies. |
Fascinating. There’s a connection to this in the censored movie, Path to 9-11.
Oliver North Ping
Pakistan views the USA as their personal ATM. If there is no unrest in Afghanistan, the Americans leave and take their cash with them.
Biden and Obama have fed the Paki’s, tripling the US aid to the corrupt Paki gov’t from the Bush years. Obama raised the Paki aid to $1.5 BILLION a year. If the Haqqani network gets taken out, we leave, and the cash stops.
Why did people not connect the dots when OBL was taken out in one of Pakistans most secure ‘military’ towns, Abbottabad? When Bin Laden died, the Pakis have resorted to plan B, firing up the Haqqani network to keep the cash flowing. If we take out Haqqani, they will pump up Gulbidden Hekmyater or some other bogeyman to keep the cash flowing. We are too dumb to see the obvious truth staring us right in the face.
Yes. The most amazing thing to me is so many people have known much of this and yet the LSM have kept silent.
Indeed. And the censorship which is incredibly hypocritical and disturbing. They’re a bunch of damn frauds.
Thanks for the ping jaz. So rarely do we read anything about Haqqani, and the reads are so long between them one sort of forgets about them.
BFL
Clarify U.S. Policy on Afghanistan: Designate Haqqani Network Terrorists
Sunday, September 02, 2012 9:36:33 PM · by nuconvert · 6 replies ,p> The Heritage Foundation ^ | August 21, 2012 For the past two years, the Obama Administration has pursued on-again, off-again reconciliation talks with Taliban leaders in an effort to bring an end to the Afghan war. As part of this process, it has wrestled with how to handle the Haqqani network, a Taliban affiliate organization headquartered in Pakistans tribal border areas that has extensive influence in eastern Afghanistan and is responsible for some of the most vicious attacks against coalition forces. Congress recently passed legislation, which President Obama signed into law on August 10, requiring the Administration to determine within 30 days whether the Haqqani network should officially...
The designation went thru yesterday....2 days before the deadline.
US declares Haqqani network a terrorist body
Saturday, September 08, 2012 2:18:05 AM · by Olog-hai · 6 replies , AP via New York Daily News ^ | Friday, September 7th 2012, 12:58 PM | Bradley Klapper
http://india.nydailynews.com/newsarticle/9c98ad14f2f4b4eee558ca7ee72d6fe4/us-declares-haqqani-network-a-terrorist-body
The Obama administration declared Friday that the Pakistan-based Haqqani network of militants is a terrorist body despite misgivings about how the largely symbolic act could further stall planned Afghan peace talks ....Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's decision, signed Friday ahead of a Sunday deadline set by Congress, bans Americans from doing business with members of the group and blocks any assets it holds in the United States. ...
A year. jeez
LEAD: US Afghan envoy confirms talking to Haqqani insurgents Deutsche Presse-Agentur ^ | Jan 22, 2012, 16:38 GMT Posted on 01/22/2012 6:23:51 PM PST by Nachum
As if the Taliban wasnt bad enough. KABUL, AFGHANISTAN The US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan on Sunday confirmed a meeting with the Haqqani insurgent group, as signs of a dialogue between the United States and rebels continue to grow.
We had one meeting with Haqqani network, Marc Grossman told a news conference in Kabul.
His remarks come after US and the Taliban militants confirmed preliminary talks for opening an liaison office for the Taliban in the Qatari capital of Doha increasing speculation of an end to the decade-long bloody insurgency in this war-torn country. (Excerpt) Read more at monstersandcritics.com
*******
To: Nachum
His remarks come after US and the Taliban militants confirmed preliminary talks for opening an liaison office for the Taliban in the Qatari capital of Doha His remarks come after this too... Taliban video shows execution of Pakistani soldiers Winning! 11 posted on Sunday, January 22, 2012 10:03:19 PM by TigersEye
* Marc Grossman : More on Grossman at Strata-sphere. Seems he traveled with some cohorts of John Kerry's...Rand Beers in particular. Grossman went to the same college and graduated the same year as {drum roll please} [Ambassador] Joe Wilson and also had the same job in a neighboring country. Strato-sphere also has some interesting comments about a Turkey connection. You remember Turkey the country that balked at allowing our forces passage into northern Iraq? ---------------- Posted by ravingnutter to kabar On News/Activism 09/14/2006 7:42:11 AM PDT · 287 of 296
On July 6, 2003, Armitage asked Ford to send a copy of the memo to Powell on AF-1. Ford changed the date and addressed it to Powell, but used the same text in the memo. And per the above linked article, it was Grossman that told Libby about Plame and he was also the first one to point a finger at Libby when this broke. We know Armitage had no loyalty to Bush, but it went even further than that
from a story I found last week: Kerry Exploring Cabinet Options ...--- a freeper
Thanks, War on Drugs, for hyperinflating terrorist profits.
June 2003
Week of 1-7: Washington Posts Walter Pincus asks CIA about Wilsons trip
State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research head Carl Ford responds to request from Under Secretary of State Marc Grossman with memo mentioning Plames CIA association and role in arranging Wilsons trip; memo is possibly shared with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Secretary of State Colin Powell
BTW, any updates on this allegation mentioned in one of my old posts (unsubstantiated last I checked but I noted it as worth following up on)?
Walter Pincus, Dana Priest, and other researchers have previously noted that Plames front company was called Brewster-Jennings & Associates, a disclosure that has generated remarkably little follow-up from a media usually eager to expose CIA scandals. Some researchers have asserted that Robert Novaks 2003 column compromised CIA assets linked to Brewster-Jennings. But others have called attention to a report by former FBI agent Sibel Edmonds indicating that a year earlier the FBI was already aware that Brewster-Jennings had been compromised during a conversation between Marc Grossman and Turkish lobbyists under Bureau surveillance in a corruption investigation.
Good work. Not sure I can put all of that into a post succinctly, but I will put up the video of the executions and Oliver North’s piece.
I think we can assume that there is scullduggery in high levels. I also suspect that Grossman is only one of many operatives. It would be interesting to do some search into all the Obama personnel who came from Strato-Sphere.
Those must be Turkish lobbysists of the American-Turkish Council, I guess.
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